Mobile phone and internet tariffs suffer biggest rise in prices in 10 years

19th May 2016, 0 comments

The prices for telephone services in Spain are growing at a record rate this year.

In April, consumers ended up paying an extra 3.7% for their telephone calls and Internet connection with respect to the same month in 2015.

This is the biggest increase since records began in 2007, and already a rise of 2.5% for this year.

Tariffs have become more expensive due to the repackaging of new offers that the main operators on the market in Spain have put together.

Movistar, Orange and Vodafone recently announced that their tariffs for packages that group together mobile phone, Internet connection at home and on mobile devices, and television would be going up by around 3 euro each month.

And they say that the increase in tariffs is due an improvement in the services offered – either a faster Internet connection or a greater one, therefore, claiming a reduction in prices when you take into account quality of service and price.

Experts in the sector believe that prices will rise even further over the next few months.

Whilst telecommunications services prices went up in April by a substantial amount, they are still at the same level that they were two years ago. In addition, today’s actual prices are 14% lower than what they were at the highest rate ever registered in 2009.

Part of the reason that Orange and Vodafone are now charging more money for their packages probably has to do with the fact that they have to assume the cost of the recent acquisitions of Jazztel (Orange) and Ono (Vodafone).

Movistar continues to dominate the market, but only just, with 30.3% of all contracts. Orange follows in second place with 27.3% of customers and Vodafone is in third with 26.5%.

Other companies that hold some sway on the market include Yoigo and MasMóvil, who are in fourth and fifth position.

And with regards to Internet connections, Movistar is way ahead of its competitors in this case with 43% of the market share in comparison to 28% and 22% for Orange and Vodafone.

Telefonica (Movistar) now controls 88% of the paying TV business after buying Canal + last year.

And the good news is that while the tariffs for our telecommunication services might cost slightly more this year, the price of mobile phone devices has been reduced.

This year prices have fallen 0.6%, making the cost of mobile phones etc. 7.7% cheaper than they were in April 2015.